The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-11

grand means Of emphasizing this new
and blessed crusade for social purity. !
am glad to think Of the meaning of that
emblem. am glad to think that now in
the fullness of time it has new significance
of tie Cross of our Lord, which is tc be
lifted to its place in the sky in the TWEEN
tieth Century, high over every other en-
blem; no longer red with the tinge of war
and carnage, but white with the promise
of manhood that carries in its breast the
lilies of a spotless purity, while as of old
its cleaning legend shall be ''By this sign
we conquer" APPLAUSE
Friends, it is said that on the Adriatic
sea, down by the waters there, the fisher
mems daughters and wives and mothers,
just before retiring for the night, go out as
they know that the fishermen are away
yonder in the tumultous pillows, and these
women sing cave Maria, we lift our souls
to thee, and then they listen while from
away out yonder the deep bass voices Of
those who are dearest to their homes
comes back the sweet refrain, Gave Maria,
we lift our souls to thee and so each
knows the thought Of the other that there
is between them in such different circum-
stances the highest of all thoughts.
like to think that in these days women,
hedged about by a thousand guarantees
and safeguards, are singing in their ten
der voices to the men they love far out in
the midst of the pillows Of temptation,
CLONE, Sweet Home" and back comes
the repetition of that highest and most sa-
cred thought this world can know. by
those whe are tempted by lower standards
of life. still to the women comes the
thought and comes the song of ''Home,
Sweet Home God grant that mems and
womens lips may echo this more loudly
ever as the years pass on. Applause.
/ wish, then, to ask you, friends, to SYM
pathize by your lives and in your words,
and prayers, and deeds, with this White
Cross movement, which has as its basilar
principle that we ought to point the
thoughtless youth in the bewildered years
of the second decade to the precipices of
danger that lie before him, and to the safe,
sure path that love points out into safety.
We ought to take the position that if the
heart of boyhood can be kept true to the
home, true to the mother heart; if there
can be Il confidential freedom between the
boy with his adventurous young thought
so sure to ask thousand questions, about
this intricate and wonderful world in which
in the midst of boyhood he finds himself;
If he can come 10 his mother and ask those
somebody, and they are snre TO be an
swered by somebody, keying up
those answers to the highest significance
of things sacred and pure, there shall be
forevermorc talisman between the boy S
life in his temptation and the mothers life
in her protection, ana | am sure you will
all agree with this statement of Lew Wal
lace. in Ben Hur, i'll which there is -much
could not be everywhere, 50 He made
mothers; so lie incarnated His own spirit
in the mother heart so pure and tender.
remember reading since | came into
this work of what young minister said,
that until he was ten years Of age he was
always guarded at home: he never went to
school; he knew nothing whatever about
this wonderful temptation that life was to
have for him ere long, and the very first
day he went to the public school, out on
the playground the boys began to taunt
him for his ignorance, and to say to him in
coarse and brutal language many things
of what he had no cognizance whate,e r in
any fashion, and he came home after
school was over and came rushing into the
sitting-room to hunt for his mother te tell
her all that he had heard, poured it all out
in her ears, with no garnishing and no dis
guising and it was SO bad that his mother
turned hei face away angrily and with a
gesture of Gispleasurc said, Charlie, never
come to me with talk like that; never say
one word to me about what the boys say to
you on the playground That young
minister said, MY mothers name stood
first upon my calendar of saints; my moth
er was my guardian, had always been, and
now so suddenly and for no reason that |
could see, and for no wrong that | had
done, it seemed as if she had removed her
hand from the helm of my life bark, and
it drifted out to sea without the guardian
ship thar / most needed then of all times in
my life
On, friends, am glad to tell you that as
I go up and down speaking upon this
theme, White Ribbon women, earnest
christian bands for home, say to me 'Niy
boy and have talked of these things in
temper and with thought so holy that
when he hears the talk of the street and of
the alley and of the playground, he comes
home to me and says, ''Mother, won't
listen to them; they shan't talk when they
want to in my hearing, after the way you
and have talked" (Applause.l
In my own town, the very first pledge that
ever presented gave to the mother of
noble boy sixteen years old, the son of wo-
man whose name would be well recognized
if were to mention it here, and told her
''Just let me know what your son says
about that pledge; what he thinks about
the propriety of giving it to those not